Hardee’s French Dip Thickburger with French Maids - This has been a print campaign mostly for the Hardee’s French Dip Thickburger.  It’s a third pound burger topped with roast beef and swiss with a cup of au jus for dipping.  Sounds pretty awesome. I love that Hardees has the French maids as the mascots.  That is clever and hilarious.  See an intro video featuring the French maids here.

Hardee’s Biscuit Holes – I love the name of this product.  Biscuit Holes. That is funny. However, Hardee’s currently has a campaign to rename them and the above video is the awesomely funny commercial that goes with it. I love seeing people trying to come up with something better than Biscuit Holes and everything they say is almost worse. See another biscuit holes commercial here (it’s just as funny).

Burger King Super 7 incher - Unbelievably unsubtle advertisement for BK’s Super 7 Incher sandwich.   No commercial for this, yet.  But I doubt it would be able to air on anything other than Showtime.  The look on that chicks face is classic.  (picture via So Good Blog)

Taco Bell – All About the Roosevelts – Promoting their 79, 89 and 99 cent menu, Taco Bell created a classic music video in the vein of Lonely Island (the guys that make the SNL Digital Shorts).

Denny’s – Nannerpuss – Why do my wife and I love this commercial? I have no idea. It’s completely ridiculous. You can even see the strings attached to the banana peels. So awful yet so awesome at the same time. “They call me…Nannerpuss, Nannerpuss. I love pancakes.” Me too, Nannerpuss. Me too.

Jack in the Box – Jack vs The King – Jack in the Box has great commercials. I love Jack, the mascot, with the giant clown head. I just find him hilarious (probably part of my thing about people dressed up as giant animal mascots). For some reason in Jacksonville, we see Jack in the Box commercials all the time, however there is no Jack in the Box anywhere in the city. WTF is up with that? I would love to have a Jack in the Box here in town. Instead, I have to just enjoy the commercials. In this particular commercial Jack lays the smack down on Burger King.

Jack in the Box – Mini-Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwich – I first saw this commercial while running on the treadmill, so I didn’t hear it, I only saw it. The dance they were doing intrigued me. So I found the commercial online and I love the song, too. This is just a fun commercial. Great song. And the end of the commercial has the new Jack in the Box logo.

McDonald’s has always had really, really good commercials.  Especially during the whole McDonaldLand era.  All of those characters were awesome and almost every single one of the characters had their own commercial.  So today, I thought I’d look at my favorite character and a few of his commercials.

I love the Hamburglar. He was always my favorite character. He had an awesomely kick ass name and he was a bit of a rebel. Also, check out the striped suit, the dude obviously did some time in prison. How cool is that? A children’s fast food mascot that did hard time. Awesome, indeed. So, in honor of our felon friend, here are a bunch of commercials that feature the Hamburglar.  Click the title of the commercial or the image to see the commercial on YouTube.

The Hamburglar Touch – This was back in the ’80s/’90s when the McD commercials had title cards like a Looney Tunes cartoon. This commercial featured the Hamburglar dreaming about what it would be like to have everything he touched turn into a juicy hamburger.  You can see the Hamburglar in this commercial looks different than the big picture above.  The Hamburglar used to look more like a goblin, but they softened him up in the late ’80s to look more like a Cabbage Patch Kid.  It’s tough to find commercials with the goblin face.

How Hamburglar Got His Stripes - I’m a little confused by this commercial. I mean, Hamburglar was a thief. He actively sought out and stole hamburgers. It’s even in his name (burglar). As I mentioned earlier, I assumed that Hamburglar wore stripes because the dude did time in prison. Am I right? Well, apparently not according to this commercial.  As you watch this commercial imagine all my childhood preconceptions getting gang raped in the Riker’s Island showers.

Hamburger University – Another odd commercial. Ronald teaching a class full of talking hamburgers? Creepy. What’s he teaching them, how to be eaten? Actually, he’s teaching them to stay away from the Hamburglar. “Don’t be eaten by the Hamburglar, guys, you have to save yourself to be eaten by regular kids.”  Like I said, kinda weird. Doubly weird because McDonald’s does, in fact, have a Hamburger University on the grounds of their corporate headquarters in Illinois.  But I don’t believe you’ll find a class full of talking hamburgers at that University.  But, again, I’ve never been there.  But it would be really cool if they were there.

Cheeseburgers To Go – This entire commercial is a riff on a Scooby-Doo episode. Watch Ronald chase the Hamburglar through a series of doors. Why are there so many doors in this room? Is it a hotel? It seems like a ridiculous amount of doors for the amount of room.  Anyway, this is the only McD’s commercial I can think of that actually got a sequel…Cheeseburgers To Go…Again. In the sequel, Ronald chases the Hamburglar through a hallway of doors instead of just a room. See what they did there? Yeah, Hollywood should take notes from McD’s on how to properly make an original sequel.

The next group of commercials are another type of commercial format McDonald’s used:  the music video.  In the ’80s, as a counter point to the “bedtime/fairy tale” based commercials like the ones above, McDonald’s used these music commercials to appeal to slightly older kids. I always loved these type of commercials because the tunes were always catchy and upbeat.  Here are a few of those.  Click the image or commercial title to see the video on YouTube.

First Day – I mentioned this in my first McDonald’s commercial article and it’s still one of my all-time favorites. The drinking fountain gag gets me every time.

Dancin’ – I remember this commercial very well as a kid.  The music is fun and upbeat and I like all the dancing. I think, for me, the most memorable part are the three graduates dancing before getting their picture taken or the two kids moonwalking in front of the Big Mac.

Homework – Another cool one I remember that was geared toward kids a little older. And it takes place in a school like so many of the others. Teachers give ever increasingly ridiculous homework assignments to the kids. A 500 word essay on “who was Moby Dick?” He’s a f%^$in’ WHALE, dude. Come on. And memorize the Preamble to the Constitution? No problem, I already know it thanks to Schoolhouse Rock. Valiant effort on the kids in the commercial to try to turn it into a rap song though.  Is it just me, or does the little boy in the end look and sound like Corey Feldman?

Okay, that’s enough for today, kiddies.  I hope to have another article up this week.  I thought last week’s Star Wars Celebration 10 year anniversary article looked a little lonely all by itself.  We’ll see if I can get another one up.  It may or may not happen,  mostly because Saturday is my birthday and I may not have a chance to work on it whilst I am in preparation for the festivities.  To celebrate my bday on Saturday I’ll be running a 5K and then hopefully going to see the new Star Trek movie and going to eat at one of my favorite places of all time, Maggiano’s Little Italy.  See you later.

Part I
Part II

I came up with a few more characters I could possibly add to this list but I will leave this article at an odd three parts for right now.

Let’s begin, shall we?

Herb – I remember Herb, or “Herb the Nerd”, being all over the place in the mid-’80s. Herb was created as a gimmick for Burger King in 1985. He was supposed to be a guy who had never eaten a Whopper. An actor portrayed him and would show up at random Burger Kings throughout the country. If someone recognized him, they would get a prize. The contest was called “Where’s Herb” and they ran the commercials incessantly in 1985. I thought it was a pretty popular ad, but looking up info on the interweb, I see that it is widely considered one of the biggest advertising flops of all time. He was subsequently retired in 1986. Click here for one of the Herb commercials.

Hostess Cake Characters – I love Hostess’ products. The Twinkie, Cup Cakes, Fruit Pies, Ding Dongs, etc, etc. They are delicious little treats I’ve enjoyed since I was a kid. For the longest time, Hostess had mascots for every single one of it’s products. Like McDonald’s characters, each mascot represented one of their pastries or cakes. Does it get any better than anthropomorphic pastries that can walk and talk? I didn’t think so. The ring leader of these sugary characters was Twinkie the Kid. Second from the left in the picture above, Twinkie the Kid was a regular twinkie dressed as a cowboy. Click here for an animated Twinkie the Kid commercial. The other characters you can see in the pic above are (left to right); Captain Cupcake, Twinkie the Kid, Happy Ho Ho and Fruit Pie the Magician. There are three other mascots not shown in the pic above. The first two are King Dong (Ding-Dongs) and Chauncey Choco-dile (Choco-diles). The final and least known is called Soul Bro and he was the chocolate version of Twinkie the Kid (yes, I’m serious). Click here to see a commercial for Ding-Dongs with King Dong. Click here for a commercial with Fruit Pie the Magician. Other than the picture in the link above, I could not find any commercials or other pictures of Soul Bro. I found the Hostess mascots fun, and I think my favorite was Fruit Pie the Magician because I have a soft spot for pastries that do illusions. I wonder why more companies don’t assign mascots for every product they release? Billy Budlight, anyone?

Mr. Whipple – Old school. One of the original gangstas of product endorsement. That’s pretty much all you can say about Mr. Whipple here. Oh, and maybe sick old man. He was an old guy who worked in a grocery store following ladies around telling them to stop “squeezing the Charmin”. The Whipple commercials started in 1964 and didn’t stop until 1984. Mr. Whipple did return in 1999 for a throwback commercial. That’s a lot of toilet paper commercials. Charmin lived off these commercials as they were very popular. In a 1970s survey, Mr. Whipple here bested then president Jimmy Carter as the most recognizable man in America. Click here for one of Mr. Whipple’s commercials.

Justin Wilson – I actually thought Mr. Wilson here was created by Ruffles to sell their Cajun Spice flavored chips (now retired). However, he is actually a famous TV chef. He has numerous cajun cooking books and a tv show. His signature made-up cajun word was “Wonder-mous!”. He also liked to say things were “Gooo-oooo-ooood!” I enjoyed his commercials, and I swear that Ruffles used him for a few of their other flavors after his Cajun Spice spots became popular, but I could be wrong. Click here for one of Justin’s Cajun Spice commercials.

Well, that concludes this trilogy of classic commercial characters. Hope you enjoyed the list. Like I said earlier, I have a few more I could possibly add, but I’ll save that for another time. Hope this was a pleasant trip down memory lane for some of you. I had fun doing the research.

Keep watching your TV as you may be watching tomorrow’s classic advertising characters today.

Technorati Tags – advertising commercials TV Pop Culture Burger King Mr Whipple Hostess Ruffles chips

Cookie Jarvis – Many people may not remember Cookie Jarvis, or maybe you didn’t realize he had a name. But the wizard mascot who adorned boxes of Cookie Crisp in the ’70s – ’80s will always have a place in my nostalgic memories. I remember him so fondly because Cookie Crisp was one of my favorite cereals when I was a kid. It makes me think of early morning breakfasts with my brother and dad before school. Our favorite flavor was the Vanilla Cookie Crisp (see pic on left). Unfortunately this flavor was retired many years ago, along with Mr. Jarvis. He also had some cool commercials where he’d perform magic using his magic wand topped with a chocolate chip cookie. Pretty awesome if you ask me. To see Cookie Jarvis in action…click here.

The Noid – Who doesn’t remember being told to “Avoid the Noid” in the ’80s? He was a very popular character for Domino’s throughout the ’80s. This menacing little imp was the homicidal scourge of pizzas everywhere. He would try to ruin any pizza he came across, yet when he came upon a Domino’s pizza, he’s was thwarted, mostly by his own pizza destroying inventions. Yes, the Noid was Wile E Coyote to Domino’s Pizza’s Road Runner. I enjoyed the little character, however he was getting a little old by the time they phased him out. He had shown up on t-shirts, tv shows, toy shelves and two different video games. As a matter of fact, even today, the Simpsons and Family Guy love to use the image of the Noid in various on screen jokes. Click here to see one of the Noid’s commercials. Did you know, in 1989, a guy named Kenneth Lamar Noid thought the commercials were a direct personal attack on him, so he held several employees hostage in an Atlanta Domino’s Pizza place for over five hours? He eventually surrendered to the police and was ruled insane at his trial (he was crazy? Really?).

Louie the Lightning Bug – This one toes the line of being an advertising character. He was actually the star of several PSAs that were sponsored by local power companies. But you could say he “advertised” safety around electricity (yeah, I’m stretching, I know). Developed by the same people who did School House Rock, Louie was also voiced by the same guy who did a lot of the School House Rock characters, including “I’m Just a Bill”. The songs Louie performed in his commercials were catchy and I really enjoyed it when they came on. The pervailing theme in all of his songs was, “You Gotta Play it Safe Around Electricity”. I still can sing some of the songs. Click here to see my favorite Louie the Lightning Bug commercial.

Burger Kingdom – Did you know in the mid-’70s that Burger King created a group of characters to represent their menu items a la the McDonaldLand characters? Members of the Burger Kingdom included three allies for The King. Sir Shakes-A-Lot was addicted to milkshakes and had body armor made from BK cups. Burger Thing was a huge hamburger in what looked like a 3-D picture frame that loved to sing (Wha-?!). The third friend of The King was the Wizard of Fries who was a robot powered by french fries who can “multi-fry”, or clone french fries into more fries. Other than these three friends, Burger King had one arch nemesis named Duke of Doubt. He was a non-believer in the magic of the Burger King. Strange and unusual, and not as well developed as the McDonaldLand characters, they were not-surprisingly phased out by the mid-’80s. Click here to see a commercial with Sir Shakes-A-Lot.

Toothpaste Kid and the Cavity Creeps – It’s hard to believe that this came out in the mid-’70s. Crest’s superhero kids battling rock-like villains was wildly popular. Check out this uber-cool commercial here. The Marvel-esque style of the animation and the Hulk-like Cavity Creeps make for a very compelling commercial. Not surprisingly, the visuals were developed by a former Marvel Comics artist. Also not surprisingly, this campaign included a comic book. It was so popular it continued to air into the ’80s. Most of us remember mainly the Cavity Creeps yelling “WE PUT HOLES IN TEETH!” and then the Toothpaste Kid and crew would hose them down with a blue glowing substance we have to assume is toothpaste and not anti-freeze. And how about that fortress in the shape of teeth? So awesome. Very well developed commercial that still resonates with people who were kids when it aired.

So, there’s Group 2. What do you guys think? Well, I thought of at least a few more of these guys, so a Group 3 is in the works as I write this.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

UPDATE! – Click here for Part III of this article.

Technorati Tags – advertising commercials TV Pop Culture Burger King Cavity Creeps Noid

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite forgotten advertising characters. I’m focusing mostly on retired characters, so you won’t see Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Clean or the Brawny lumberjack on here because they are still in active use. If I’ve not mentioned one of your favorites, let me have it in the comments!

Swedish Bikini Team (SBT) – In 1991 Old Milwaukee invented the idea of a team of “Swedish” beauties whose primary talent was wearing bikinis. Suprisingly, the Nobel committee ignored this achievement (probably too visionary an idea). Not quite suprisingly, all of the team members were actually American models wearing platinum blond wigs. The idea was funny and the commercials were clever and ran for a year or two. The SBT even started making appearances outside of their commercials in tv shows, videos and an issue of Playboy magazine. I thought that this team was defunct because they are no longer in any commercials, however they still have an official website and make appearances, but I don’t think they are still affiliated with Old Milwaukee. You can see one of their commercials here. Even today, the idea of a team of bikini wearing models set to improve the lives of men by delivering cold beer brings a tear to my eye.

Frito Bandito – From 1967 to 1971 the Frito Bandito, a wonderful kaleidescope of generic Mexican stereotypes, was the animated spokesman for Frito Corn Chips. Interestingly, he was animated by none other than Tex Avery (One of the original Warner Bros animators) and voiced by the great Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck). The character was very similar to another Blanc creation, Speedy Gonzales. The Bandito became popular enough that it would eventually lead to lawsuits by the National Mexican-American Defamation League which, in turn, led to his final retirement. You can see an early Frito Bandito commercial here. He was later followed by the talking Corn Chip Chimichanga (just kidding).

Fruit Brute/Yummy Mummy – I mentioned these cereals in my last Halloween article. Fruit Brute the werewolf was introduced in 1975 and discontinued in 1983. Yummy Mummy was introduced in 1988 and then discontinued in 1993. You can still see these characters pop up in merchandise including bobble head dolls and resin kits.

Ernest P. Worrell – The character of Ernest P. Worrell (as portrayed by Jim Varney) was created by the ad agency Carden & Cherry and first used in a commercial in 1980 for an amusement park called Beech Bend Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Ernest was a country-bumpkin type charater supposedly modeled after Andy Griffith’s Ernest T. Bass. Ernest would show up in local commercials over the next several years before landing a national sponser with Sprite in the ’90s. Ernest also starred in his own series of movies to mixed critical acclaim (Ernest Saves Christmas is easily the funniest one). In 2000, Jim Varney died of lung cancer while in post-production on the movie Ernest the Pirate (which has remained unreleased). Check out one of Ernest’s Sprite commercials here.

Jacko – Jacko was an Australian football player who, after retirement, became a singing sensation (wha-?) in his native Australia. Despite being completely unknown to American audiences, Energizer hired him as a spokesman. The commercials became extremely popular as they showed an animated Jacko yelling “NEW ENTERGIZER, IT’LL SURPRISE YA!!” then punctuating it with a loud “OY!” which became his catchphrase. I personally liked these commercials and couldn’t get his Australian accent yelling his dialogue at the people next to him out of my head. I still can’t. Check out one of his commercials and see if you can get it out…short of putting a bullet in your brain.

Well, there you have the first group of classic advertising characters. You should remember most of those, and you may have been reminded of a favorite long forgotten. I have a second group of these guys set to go as soon as I can compile the information. Look for that early next week, I hope.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Update: Click here for Part II of this list

Technorati Tags – advertising commercials TV Pop Culture Swedish Bikini Team Frito Bandito